We are more of a specialty product company: DuPont South Asia President

'Strategically, we are looking at what are the major trends in India', said Anupam Jaiswal

After a merger with Dow Chemical Company in 2015, DuPont, one of the largest chemical business entities in the world, went through internal change. Anupam Jaiswal, president, DuPont, South Asia, talks to Shine Jacob on its shift towards a speciality products and solutions major. Edited excerpts:

You underwent some structural changes this year? 

It began with our merger with Dow. It was announced in 2015 and came to fusion in 2017. Then, we kind of split into three companies in 2019. Basically, we were trying to create standalone companies that would be successful in their own field. 

A dedicated agricultural company called Corteva was created, Dow was going to be the materials division and the new DuPont, an amalgamation of some businesses of heritage DuPont and some businesses that came from Dow, were really the speciality businesses that focused not on the commodity or the chemicals space. That is the kind of genesis of why we did the split. Emerging from that is the new DuPont, a $23-24 billion company with close to 32,000 employees and more than 200 manufacturing sites and operations in 70 countries. We invest close to $900 million (annually) in research and development.

What are the implications of this split for DuPont? 

We have come out as a focused company. We have four industry verticals — transportation, safety and construction, nutrition and bio sciences, and electronics and communication.  The nature of these industries are such that we are constantly looking at innovations and partnerships across the value chains, so that we can work on the problems they are trying to solve... We have moved away from being a chemicals firm. We are more of a speciality products or solutions firm today. We expect to be working much closer with partners than ever. 

What growth potential do you see for DuPont in India?  

If you look at our four businesses — nutrition and biosciences globally is a $6.5-billion business; transportation and industry is $5 billion; safety and construction, too, comes to around $5 billion; electronics & communication is $3.5-3.6 billion. Depending on the relevance of the industry in India, the penetration could vary anywhere between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent. In some, India’s contribution might be 8-10 per cent. 

Strategically, we are looking at major trends in India. How DuPont kind of aligns with these mega trends, from a capability standpoint. One such trend in India is a lot of push around lightweighting and emission norms in the automotive sector. We play a very significant role in that space, by converting metals into plastics. That reduces the weight of a car, improves fuel consumption and thereby emissions. 

The second area is around the electrification of vehicles. We have solutions. Our penetration into electric vehicles (EVs) will be probably double our presence in conventional internal combustion engine ones. We have solutions around lightweighting of batteries, making batteries safer, etc. These are two mega trends the government is optimistically talking about. Then, talk about clean water — in the safety and construction portfolio, we have a water business.

We have a whole bunch of filtration solutions, where we can provide you clean water, can go into reverse osmosis solutions, and also recycle and reuse waste water.  If you look at the Indian macro space, a lot of trends are emerging and aligning very closely with the areas DuPont is focused on. I find India an exciting market and we expect the Indian business to grow. 

The focus sectors you have mentioned are not doing well. 

Let me take the automotive industry, where we do have a significant play. I think it (the current slowdown) was a combination of the internal and external environments. I don’t think a lot of people have realised that 60-70 per cent of the credit that went to auto buyers came through the NBFC (non-banking financial companies) sector. We all are aware of the huge challenge the NBFC sector is facing and the huge credit crunch which has come in there. That is one thing impacting the auto sector.

The second thing that plays around is the tightening of norms around emissions. Auto manufacturers have had to invest in technologies. There are regulations like the shift from Bharat Stage (BS) IV to BSVI norms. If you look at the needs related to emission and the air quality, those are necessary steps but adding some amount of cost.

The third element that has come in is global uncertainty — people today are not spending money. I think it was a combination of internal and external factors that have created a bit of stress in the market. My personal view is that it is not really long-term and we will bounce back.

 The area that needs to be addressed is how to bring back consumer confidence, so that people can start spending money. We actually saw the auto industry slowing in August of last year. We saw a similar slowdown in 2011-2012 and bounced back from there. If you look at the trajectory, I think it is positive for the economy. 

Do you see EVs as part of your growth strategy in India?

Electrification of vehicles is a space where the government has set higher goals. We are trying to get an assessment on what is realistically possible. I don’t think the policy has taken complete shape. DuPont is currently contributing to the internal combustion space, too, in a very significant manner. It is not that we are a new entrant; we are well positioned in most of our businesses in India. We are working with all the major original equipment makers in the country. We work with almost all the players in the sector, including Suzuki, Hyundai, Toyota, Mahindra, and Tatas.

As they shift towards electrification, we will be there as a partner of choice. We will evolve or help the technology evolve.